


Community Living

by josephina_x



Series: the roommies ficlets 'verse [3]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Gen, Slice of Life, roomies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-14
Updated: 2013-03-14
Packaged: 2017-12-05 06:45:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/720056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lex may sometimes not mind so much when Clark bosses him around a little bit. He's been learning that life's little adventures are always worth it when you let a friend take you along for the ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Community Living

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Community Living  
> Author: [josephina_x](http://josephina-x.livejournal.com)  
> Fandom: Smallville  
> Pairing: Clark, Lex (or Clark/Lex if you prefer)  
> Rating: PG (unless you want to put your mind in the gutter, in which case, R and fadeout before it goes NC-17 :-P )  
> Spoilers: general for the series, I guess assume either a rift-what-rift or other standard kiss-and-make-up situation as prior backstory  
> Word count: 1000+  
> Summary: Lex may sometimes not mind so much when Clark bosses him around a little bit. He's been learning that life's little adventures are always worth it when you let a friend take you along for the ride.  
> Warnings: Un-beta'd.  
> Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.  
> Comments: Yes, please! :)  
> Author's Note: Meh. This and all others in the series are Clark-is-living-with-Lex-and-they-love-each-other fic(let)s. I leave it up to you to decide whether it's platonic, romatic, or carnal love, and how they got there. Whichever. *shrugs*

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex eyed the Metropolis Farmer's Market with some trepidation.

Clark urged him on. "Lex, _pleeeease?_ "

...Goddamnit. With the puppy-dog eyes, even.

Lex sighed. " _Fine._ " He didn't see what the big deal was. He'd been to a _real_ farmer's market in Smallville. With real farmers, even. Not just the one as a guide. Many times before. Due to puppy-dog eyes.

Lex narrowed his eyes at Clark and surreptitiously watched him sideways, as they sidled around the roadblocks of the blocked street and walked side-by-side past the 'entrance' and into the fray. He suspected that he had been trained well. Against his will. Clark, therefore, must pay.

...It wasn't like Lex had ever figured out what he was and was not supposed to buy at these things, after all. Something about foods and crafts being 'seasonal' and whatnot. Bah. ...It was always spring _somewhere_ , wasn't it?

It was sprawling mess in the middle of the city on a Saturday afternoon. God help them if the nebulous **they** who must have planned and sanctioned this unholy _thing_ ever tried to pull this off on a "lazy" Metropolis Monday morning.

Lex sneered at the tents in the street in front of the various storefronts. These were just extensions of the buildings -- they weren't even selling any foodstuffs! And, look, that one over there was even selling books, and...

Um.

...Well, Lex supposed that one couldn't really disparage a book-tent at a farmer's market. Literacy should be encouraged at every opportunity, especially the classics. --Ooh, was that Harry Potter? And Warrior Angel?

...Ahem. Not that he read any of those. Lately.

Clark, being a reader himself, tugged him along excitedly, very much like an overstimulated puppy on a leash, their interlinked hands and arms constraining his reach and, therefore, what trouble he could get into.

...like how he was now trying to haggle the price down for a full set of the eminent Ms. Rowling's literary works. Silly Clark. This was Metropolis. There was no way that any self-respecting citygoer would ever haggle over--

Huh. Lex wondered if puppy-dog eyes and brutal bargaining skills worked on most shopkeepers in the city, or if that was just a new Kryptonian power of which he'd been previously unaware. Maybe Lex could harness Clark's newfound powers for good and sic him on some of his suppliers--

Lex reflexively grabbed, then stared down at, the brown-paper-wrapped package of books that had suddenly been thrust into his chest without fanfare or warning. He raised an eyebrow or two. _Oh. I see. I'm going to be the bag-carrier for this trip, am I?_

Lex sighed and rolled his eyes as Clark dragged him off through the bustling crowd and over to the next book stall down the line, and resigned himself to briefly visiting every damn book tent in the entire marketplace and the sorry fate of a packhorse. ...Well, bookhorse. Clark would obviously be the one carrying the vegetables. That was _not_ Lex's job, **ever** , no sir, Clark took his vegetables _seriously_.

...Eh. There were worse fates.

Lex was stealing the Potter series first, though. Clark wasn't going to weasel himself out of that one.

Lex glanced over to his right as Clark stopped at the next booth, digging through the bargain bin, then started as he saw a woman waving to... him?

 _Oh. Mrs. Esther,_ he remembered as he suddenly placed the face. He sometimes saw her at the coffee shop on 6'th and Main, when he was feeling adventurous and wanting a brisk morning walk to go with his triple-shot espresso.

Lex's hands were full of books and one of Clark's hands, respectively, so he could only smile back in apology as Clark handed over a small bag of paperbacks to add to the growing load and dragged him off in the opposite direction, caught up in looking for the next location in a mad search for more good reading material.

The three of them met up in-person two book stalls later.

They ran into one of Mrs. Esther 'no, please, call-me-Esme's friends as they passed a tea stand.

Soon enough, they had a _group_ of book enthusiasts strolling as a pack through the street market, looking for bargains...

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Did you have fun?" Clark asked later, as they were taking the elevator back up to their apartment suite.

Lex grimaced slightly at himself because, damnit, now Clark had him doing it, too. 'Apartment suite'. Bah. That made it sound like--

Oh, Clark was looking--

"Ah, yes, I did. I did enjoy it," Lex said hurriedly, shifting slightly and clutching the handles of the bags of books he was carrying just a little bit tighter. "Even the tea afterwards," he was even unwound enough to admit.

Clark bit his lip and tried not to grin. "You scandalized that poor waitress, asking for coffee," he said as he shifted the heft of the two grocery bags full of fresh food he was carrying. Lex was especially looking forward to the bread and the heirloom tomatoes. They had both looked -- and smelled -- terribly delicious to even a thoroughly city-going he, and Clark had promised an introduction to tomato sandwiches.

"Well, if they weren't going to brew a proper English tea right..." Lex said unapologetically. The elevator slowed to a stop, and he stepped out, bags swinging slightly. "It's the nearest thing in strength, and I'm not having anything that's nothing more than boiled leaf juice."

"Hot leaf juice," Clark said, snickering, as he used a touch of super-speed to unlock the door without having to put down the bags he was carrying.

Lex rolled his eyes and elbowed open the door. If Clark hadn't wanted him murdering quotes from that Avatar cartoon, he shouldn't have made him watch.

"So, tomato sandwiches, then books?" Clark said.

"Dibs on the Harry Potter," Lex said immediately, strolling into the apartm-- no, their _home!_

Home.

And one of these days, when he was feeling drunk enough and courageous enough to do so, he'd inform Clark that he should call it that, too.

~*~*~*~*~*~


End file.
